A north-west group’s 68-storey tower is set to dominate the London skyline.

By Heather Greig-Smith

this week Liverpool-based developer the Beetham Organization submitted plans for a mixed-use tower that could cap off the renaissance at London’s South Bank.

The £500m glass tower will rise 68 storeys and contain a 440,000 sq ft (40,892 sq m) hotel, 310,000 sq ft (28,800 sq m) of residential space and a public viewing gallery on the top floor.

To be built on the site of the former Sainsbury’s headquarters at the junction of Blackfriars Bridge and Blackfriars Road, the Ian Simpson-designed tower will be 740 ft (226.5 metres) high. This would make it the highest living space and public gallery in the UK.

The scheme would also herald the arrival of Beetham and Simpson in London. The privately owned group is well known in the north-west, where it is developing residential-led towers that are beginning to dominate the Liverpool and Manchester skylines. And Simpson is one of Britain’s best emerging architects but is still better-known in the north of England.

If it wins planning permission from Southwark Council the tower will also illustrate the explosion of high-rise living across Britain.

Out of office

Sainsbury’s and Stanhope had earmarked the site for a Foster & Partners-designed 375,000 sq ft (34,840 sq m) office scheme, and a board on its perimeter still advertises it as such. But Beetham has gone for a radical change of use.

The ‘slender glass tower’ will contain a ‘six-star’ hotel, the operator of which has not yet been decided. On the 28th and 29th floors there will be a restaurant and bar, together with a health spa, gym and swimming pool with views across Westminster and the City.

Above the hotel, 220 flats are planned. With construction costs estimated to be in the region of £250m, it will be funded by equity and debt.

The Beetham proposal also represents a significant height difference from the rest of the South Bank. However, the developer is convinced that the plans are right for the location. Its founder and chairman Hugh Frost says: ‘Clearly the scheme previously approved for the site did not meet market demand.’

Beetham bought the site from Sainsbury’s for £48m last November. It was vacated when Sainsbury’s moved to Holborn in 2000. The supermarket group originally intended to redevelop the site for its own occupation and move back, but changed its mind.

Last year it abandoned an attempt to develop the site with Stanhope, after publisher IPC decided not to relocate there; it moved instead to Land Securities’ Bankside 123 scheme, 200 yards to the east.

Frost says: ‘Whilst we will look at other exciting opportunities in London and elsewhere this project will be our prime focus for some considerable time to come.’

Beetham Organization is a family company owned by Frost and sons Simon Frost and Stephen Beetham. Frost’s big break came in the 1980s when he bought a residential investment portfolio, converted Victorian houses into flats and sold them off.

Its first big development was the £40m, 39-storey Beetham Tower at 111 Old Hall Street in Liverpool which has 134 flats and a 200-bed Radisson SAS hotel. It opened last year and is soon to be followed by the £35m 40-storey West Tower, also on Old Hall Street. This has been dogged by controversy: Liverpool City Council initially refused planning permission, but then granted permission when the developer threatened to mount a legal challenge.

In Manchester, Beetham’s £150m 47-storey tower on the Hilton hotel site at 301 Deansgate is due to be completed in 2006. The 515 ft (157 metre) glass tower will be extended to 561 ft (171 metres) by a glass ‘blade’. It comprises 219 flats and a 285-bed Hilton, with a bar on the 23rd floor, underground parking and 100,000 sq ft (92,900 sq m) of offices.

At 10 Holloway Circus in Birmingham, Beetham is developing a £70m tower, this time of 39 storeys, designed by Ian Simpson Architects, with 152 flats above a 218-bed Radisson SAS hotel. The hotel opens this autumn, and the flats will be ready in 2006.

Yet the Beetham model does not always work. In May, Brighton City Council rejected its plans for a 42-storey tower, designed by architect Allies & Morrison. The planning subcommittee said: ‘It was not considered that concerns could be addressed either by amendment or by imposition of additional conditions.’ Among the objections was that the site was not an ‘appropriate’ location for a tower. Beetham has six months to appeal.

For the most part, however, the group’s plans have sat well with a residential boom that has allowed it to accede to planners’ desires for good architecture, as well as a relaxation in attitudes towards tall buildings. ‘The Blackfriars site is perfectly located to repeat the hotel/residential Beetham model which has been very successfully developed in Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham,’ says Frost.

Prices for the flats will start at £500,000 for a one-bedroom flat, rising to £2.5m for a penthouse suite. ‘This will be the highest publicly accessible space in London and we are confident that it will become one of the capital’s major tourist attractions,’ says Beetham director Stephen Beetham.

The developer dismisses any fears of an oversupply of high-end residential property. ‘The building will be recognisable worldwide and will be marketed internationally where the top-end residential market remains strong,’ says Frost.

The scheme will include affordable housing, as well as 109 affordable homes in an adjacent building. The developer says these will be designed to a standard in keeping with the rest of the site. The emphasis on quality is the cornerstone of Beetham’s application, as it believes Southwark Council’s dedication to good-quality design is an important Criterion in deciding planning permission.

Malcolm Kerr, founder of project planning adviser DP9, says the application was only submitted after detailed discussions with planning officers at the council and consultation with the local community.

‘The proposal will accord with the emerging Southwark tall buildings policy which is likely to recommend that tall buildings be located at the north end of Blackfriars Road,’ he says. Beetham hopes to have a positive response to the application by the end of the year so it can start on site early in 2006.

As well as consulting Southwark planners, Beetham says it has had positive responses from the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, English Heritage and the Greater London Authority. The proposed building is not in the St Paul’s strategic views corridor.

If the London tower does go ahead, it will be the latest in a stream of tall buildings planned for the capital. Deputy prime minister John Prescott last week approved plans for St George’s 591 ft (180 metre) Vauxhall Tower, part of the £200m St George Wharf scheme.

The planning inspector was opposed to the tower, saying it was out of keeping with the existing environment and would have a detrimental effect on the riverscape, but Prescott approved the plans after additional affordable housing was added to the scheme.

Now the north-west’s biggest players are gatecrashing the London party.

Communities secretary Hazel Blears has approved two huge tower schemes on London’s South Bank by Ian Simpson and Wilkinson Eyre following last year’s public inquiry.

Scroll down for Ian Simpson's reaction

In a statement released by CLG this morning, it emerged that the minister has backed the findings of the planning inspector in supporting Simpson’s mixed use 51-storey Beetham Tower at One Blackfriars Road and Wilkinson Eyre’s neighbouring two-tower office and residential scheme for Circleplane.

Blears called in both projects following backing by Southwark Council but opposition by Westminster Council and Royal Parks which were concerned about the towers’ impact on views across the capital.

It emerged during the inquiry, held last autumn, that Mayor of London Boris Johnson was also opposed to the buildings, labelling them “unacceptable”.

The CLG statement said: “She [Blears] considers that the proposals are in appropriate locations for tall buildings…and that the design of both buildings would be of a high quality, inclusive and sustainable design which would improve the character of the area and produce attractive public spaces.”

They yet only lack that good little taste for density that NYC and Paris have, other than that, overall, the quality's getting there, which is good to see for motivating others around.

You are right, it's a different approach. I am sure you are aware that London has many more towers than paris, but in paris the towers are all built in one cluster, while in London there are many clusters. The reason for this is London wants to have a very big skyline, where lots of its clusters merge and create one giant city wide skyline, This is different than the small single cluster cities like Frankfurt or paris. Also many London towers under construction are luxury residential towers and they get built wherever the buyers want them to be built, so we are ended up having skyscraper clusters going up all over London, but when they merge it will be awesome. Having said that, just canary wharf cluster in London alone, in a few years, will be bigger than Frankfurt and la defense, and that's just one of londons clusters, more and bigger clusters are being built in London allready. Think of la defense, and imagine having ten of them, with taller towers, better designs and materials, and better cladding, that is what London will have

The fact that paris isn't building residential towers everywhere like London, it isn't because paris can't or rich people don't want to live in paris, it's because of the height limit and nimbys in paris. People want to live in the city centre, with good views and by a river, with great transport connections, that's where a lot of the London skyscrapers are being built, if paris allowed it, lots of residential towers would start being built in central paris too, in beautifull and central areas, and by the seine, and paris would have more clusters and would be back in the game. The future for skylines is residential skyscrapers, but wealthy residents just want to live in the city centre, not out on the edges of the city, they want to live in a good quality, good design tower, In prime areas by rivers and with a good view, so the only way paris can grow its skyline and compete, is by allowing towers to be built in the centre of paris, if they don't, paris will keep falling behind, all the other eu countries allow and are building towers in the city centre now, if paris allowed it they would get lots of nice new towers

They yet only lack that good little taste for density that NYC and Paris have, other than that, overall, the quality's getting there, which is good to see for motivating others around.

It's not bad, though. I mean it's not like London is lacking density. And highrises aren't everything when it comes to density, but I know what you mean. Still, I think London has a unique skyline with the way there are clusters of buildings around rather than only one or two skylines.

Off topic but do you think London will get a skyscraper bigger than the Shard?

Definitely, we are getting lots of new 200m+ towers all the time and there are lots of developers with money and rich foreign investors, like Arabs and Chinese, who are all ready building towers in London. Londons property and real estate market is booming, unprecedented levels of investment are going on, so its almost certain that we will get more supertalls, they will probably be built in one of our new clusters where there are no height restrictions, canary wharf cluster has a height limit of just under 300m because of city airport, but when the new hub airport is built, city airport will close and then we will have supertalls at canary wharf aswell, for now our supertalls will be built around the shard or in our new clusters, so we will get more supertalls over the next few years

The redesign looks less pronounced with that slightly blunted peak, but it's still a great building.

It reminds me a bit of tour phare in paris, anyway it sure will look unique, I think it will be one of those towers that you either love or hate, like the walkie talkie. The people that are building this tower have just completed another tower nearby, the 181m st George's tower, which looks fantastic, so it's a good sign that this will also be great quality and cladding, I hear it will also have a great L.E.D night lighting display, like st George's tower. This developer was unknown a few years ago, but now have built some great towers and have more tower projects coming soon, they don't waste time, they buy a site, get planning approval and diggers and tower cranes are on site straight away and begin construction, I'm very impressed by their speed of construction and commitment
to their developments.

It's not bad, though. I mean it's not like London is lacking density. And highrises aren't everything when it comes to density, but I know what you mean. Still, I think London has a unique skyline with the way there are clusters of buildings around rather than only one or two skylines.

Mah, I never said it was bad. Hell, even my mum is fond of London lol. I don't know what they've all got with their London. London here, London there and everywhere right now. That's cool, though. I swear I'm okay with it.

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